REVIEW: ‘Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium,’ Issue #1

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 is a mini-series published by DC Comics, written by Brian Michael Bendis, with pencils by Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Andrea Sorrentino, and André Lima Araújo, inks by Scott Williams, Dustin Nguyen, Andrea Sorrentino, and André Lima Araújo, colors by Alex Sinclair, John Kalisz, Dave Stewart, Jodie Bellaire, and letters by Dave Sharpe. This comic follows Rose Forest, aka Rose and Thorn, who has come seeking help because the world is leaving her behind. Rose is looking for a way to keep the world from paying the price.

Rose Forest is a woman dealing with multiple-personality disorder. When she loses control of herself her other personality Thorn takes control. Thorn is violent and has the ability to control plant life. Rose has at times found it possible to keep Thorn under control through the use of prescription medication.

When Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 opens, Rose Forest needs more medicine and seeks aid from an aged President Kara Zor-El. For many years now Rose has kept her alter ego Thorn in check with prescription drugs. But due to an unforeseen circumstance, she is having trouble acquiring them now. At this point, Rose hasn’t aged in decades. Additionally, because of scientific discoveries, people no longer deal with multiple-personality disorder. Therefore, they have stopped making medicine that can treat her. Rose fears what will happen when Thorn gets out after decades of containment.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 takes the reader on a journey throughout the various time periods of the DC Universe as they follow Rose Forest’s quest to comes to terms with her unique situation. Through this lens, Bendis crafts an interesting look at immortality. As time passes, Rose eventually comes to see patterns in the world around her. The seemingly repetitive nature of history causes Rose to question existence. While reading, I felt a significant amount of sympathy for Rose. Having struggled with many similar feelings over my relatively short life I cannot imagine what actually watching the cycle play out would do to you.

The art in Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 is superb. As Rose drifts from time period to time period the art changes. This allows each period of history to stand out and feel unique. From the vibrancy of the not too distant future to the heavy reds and black that seem to encompass Neo-Gotham. Every place instantly feels unique. This uniqueness further serves to highlight the one thing every era has in common. The singular strand that combines them; Rose.

The one issue I had with Legion of Superheroes: Millennium #1 is its ending. This book doesn’t have a proper ending, nor even a cliffhanger. It simply ends. It is unusual for a comic to leave me feeling such a lack of anything as the end comes around. I can’t remember feeling this way at the end of an issue before. Overall though, this was not a huge bother for me, but given how much I enjoyed the rest of the book, it stood out sharply.

I enjoyed Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1. I greatly appreciated the themes that have been explored in this book so far and eagerly find myself looking forward to where they will lead when the conclusion releases. If you are feeling up for something a bit different than the standard superhero adventure, I’d highly recommend Legion of Suoer-Heroes: Millennium #1.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 is available now.